Podcasts & RSS Feeds

Morning Edition on 90.5 WKAR

Mon - Fri 5am - 9am

Every weekday for over three decades, NPR's Morning Edition has taken listeners around the country and the world with two hours of multi-faceted stories and commentaries that inform, challenge and occasionally amuse. Morning Edition is the most listened-to news radio program in the country.

A bi-coastal, 24-hour news operation, Morning Edition is hosted by NPR's Steve Inskeep in Washington, D.C., and Renee Montagne at NPR West in Culver City, CA. Even as hosts, Inskeep and Montagne often get out from behind the anchor desk and travel across the world to report on the news first hand.

Heard regularly on Morning Edition are some of the most familiar voices including news analyst Cokie Roberts and sport commentator Frank Deford as well as the special series StoryCorps, which travels the country recording America's oral history.

Produced and distributed by NPR in Washington, D.C., Morning Edition draws on reporting from correspondents based around the world, and producers and reporters in locations in the United States. This reporting is supplemented by NPR Member station reporters across the country as well as independent producers and reporters throughout the public radio system.

Since its debut on November 5, 1979, Morning Edition has garnered broadcasting's highest honors, including the George Foster Peabody Award and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award.

Around the Nation

4:00 am

Wed March 28, 2012

Florida state investigators are continuing to look into the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. His family has been part of a widespread campaign calling for the arrest of the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot and killed the 17-year-old high school student. Yesterday, the parents of Trayvon Martin were up on Capitol Hill attending a forum on hate crimes and racial profiling. NPR's Sonari Glinton reports from the Capitol.

Folklorist Alan Lomax spent his career documenting folk music traditions from around the world. Now thousands of the songs and interviews he recorded are available for free online, many for the first time. It's part of what Lomax envisioned for the collection — long before the age of the Internet.

Sweetness And Light

12:01 am

Wed March 28, 2012

Duke freshman Austin Rivers, seen here in the Blue Devils' loss to Lehigh in the NCAA tournament, is leaving school for the NBA draft. The trend of athletes spending only one year in college has hurt the sport, says Frank Deford.

This year's Final Four seems more like Best in Show at the Westminster. Such pedigree: Kentucky, Kansas, Ohio State and Louisville –– four of the very top dogs in the history of the sport. Well, it's a Meryl Streep kind of year, isn't it?

But if the Final Four might delight fans by giving them aristocracy in its teams, unfortunately the whole of college basketball is plagued by anonymity in its players, and external issues that have diminished the popularity of the game.

Good grief. This year, there has been more buzz about Mad Men than about March Madness.

Japan is home to Asia's oldest and largest motion-picture industry, with its own unique genres and traditions. While every film industry has stuntmen, only Japan has a class of actors whose main job is to be sliced and diced by samurai sword-wielding protagonists. But the decline of period dramas means that this class of actors is literally a dying breed.

Religion

4:00 am

Tue March 27, 2012

Pope Benedict is in Cuba, Latin America's least Catholic country. He arrived Monday in Santiago, where Cuba's revolution began in 1953. He urged Cubans to seek unity and overcome their divisions, but his message wasn't especially political.

Around the Nation

4:00 am

Tue March 27, 2012

Occupy L.A. activists rally outside the Bank of America Plaza in Los Angeles in February. The Occupy protests around the country have inspired two working groups that are attempting to reform the banking system and create an alternative bank.

Groups within the Occupy Wall Street movement are trying to overhaul the banking system and even dream of creating a new kind of bank.

Occupy isn't in the headlines so much these days, but work continues behind the scenes. The Alternative Banking Group of Occupy Wall Street meets weekly in different places. Members are older than some might think — in their 30s, 40s and 50s — and many work or formerly worked in the financial industry.

Business

4:00 am

Tue March 27, 2012

The Pennsylvania capital Harrisburg is more than $300 million in debt. The budget is controlled by a state-appointed custodian. City and law enforcement services are under strain and residents worry violent crime may be growing.

Business

4:00 am

Tue March 27, 2012

And our last word in business today is: billion euro real estate. That's how much artist Frank Buckley's Dublin apartment cost. In theory, he actually got the materials for free from Ireland's central bank.

The walls, furniture and detailing in his apartment are all made from bricks of shredded euro notes. Buckley estimates each brick contains 40 or 50,000 euro's worth.

ARI SHAPIRO, BYLINE: The three-day marathon at the U.S. Supreme Court continues today. The court will hold its second day of hearings on President Obama's health care law. Today, the lawyers and justices will spar over whether the individual mandate is constitutional. That's a requirement that everyone carry health insurance, and it's a central tenant of the law.

NPR Story

4:00 am

Tue March 27, 2012

Hanoi, Hue, Danang and Saigon, were city names that were stamped on the American psyche a half-century ago, when the U.S. waged war in Vietnam. The once war-torn, Southeast Asian nation has made great strides to leave its troubled past behind.

Business

4:00 am

Tue March 27, 2012

Lawmakers in the House are expected to vote on a jobs act Tuesday. Part of the legislation would allow the public to make investments in start-up companies and small businesses. These companies could raise money online or through social networks. The bill would lift SEC regulations that restrict soliciting investors.

Business

4:00 am

Tue March 27, 2012

Cutbacks in airline routes affect more than disgruntled passengers — it may hinder a city's opportunity to turn around economically. Business owners say, as one of the most remote U.S. cities, Boise can't afford to lose flights.

Sports

4:00 am

Tue March 27, 2012

NCAA coaches are routinely paid six figure salaries as colleges hunt for the best talent to get their teams to a championship. New research, however, debunks the idea that paying more for coaches improves the odds of winning.

Asia

4:00 am

Tue March 27, 2012

More than 50 international leaders wrapped up talks Tuesday in Seoul, South Korea, on what needs to be done to secure vulnerable stockpiles of plutonium and highly enriched uranium. President Obama hosted the first such summit two years ago. He praised the achievements since then, but said much more needs to be done.

Shots - Health Blog

12:01 am

Tue March 27, 2012

Joseph Francis, 54, says he came to this cholera clinic in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince,after becoming so dehydrated he could barely walk. Cholera has killed more than 7,000 Haitians since the first outbreak of the disease in October 2010. At the start of the rainy season, cases are once again beginning to climb.

A hundred thousand people in Haiti are ready and waiting to get vaccinated against cholera.

The vaccine is sitting in coolers. Vaccination teams are all trained. Willing recipients are registered and entered into databases.

The impending mass vaccination project aims to show that vaccinating against cholera is feasible in Haiti. It has never been done in the midst of an ongoing cholera epidemic. So far, more than 530,000 Haitians have fallen ill with cholera, and more than 7,000 have died.

October Baby tells the story of 19-year-old Hannah, a first-year college student, who leaves home on a search for her birth mother. In many ways, it's a Hollywood-style road trip movie dealing with questions of identity, but at the movie's core is also a vigorous message about abortion.

In one scene, Hannah tracks down a nurse who worked at the health clinic where her birth mother had sought an abortion — one that failed when Hannah was born prematurely.

Europe

7:44 am

Mon March 26, 2012

Kazakhstan's Maria Dmitrienko took gold at the Arab Shooting Championships last week in Kuwait. As she stood to hear her national anthem, out blared the parody anthem from the movie Borat. Organizers apologized. They got Serbia's anthem wrong, too.

Europe

7:35 am

Mon March 26, 2012

Britain's Big Ben is technically the giant bell inside St. Stephen's Tower at Parliament. Some members of Parliament want it renamed the Elizabeth tower, in honor of the queen. Jokingly, some suggested the name: Big Beth.

Law

4:00 am

Mon March 26, 2012

Today the U.S. Supreme Court begins hearing oral arguments on the president's health care law. Six hours of arguments will be spread over three days. The court rarely takes that much time for a case. There are only 400 seats available inside the court. Outside the court, people began lining up as early as last Friday to get what they think could be a front row seat to history. NPR's Sonari Glinton reports from the steps of the Supreme Court.

NPR Story

4:00 am

Mon March 26, 2012

Royal Dutch Shell can't pay the $1 billion it owes Iran because of sanctions imposed on the Middle East country by the United States and European Union. The sanctions have made it nearly impossible to transfer the money. Reuters reports that Shell is trying to wrap up its business dealings with Iran.

NPR Story

4:00 am

Mon March 26, 2012

A selection committee in Hong Kong has chosen a former Cabinet chief as the southern Chinese financial hubs next leader. The voters were handpicked by Beijing. Leung Chun-ying's term will start in July.

Steelcase, the world's largest office furniture maker, is celebrating 100 years in business. But sales of the metal filing cabinets Steelcase is named for are declining - same with cubicles and other large pieces of office furniture.

Judging The Health Care Law

12:01 am

Mon March 26, 2012

When the U.S. Supreme Court hears challenges to the Obama administration's health care law this week, the arguments will be complex, with questions about states' rights, mandatory insurance, and Medicaid.

To introduce those concepts — and to give the rest of us something to do while the court hears six hours of arguments — we offer a word search game. The grid below features many words you'll likely hear this week, as NPR's Nina Totenberg reports from the court.

In a busy New York subway station, a man serenades passersby with a beat-up guitar. A few of them look up from their BlackBerrys and toss a little change in his guitar case. It's a scene that plays out in subways and streets around the world.

U.S.

12:19 pm

Fri March 23, 2012

The White House has made its choice for who should lead the World Bank. Jim Yong Kim is currently the president of Dartmouth University. He's a physician and a global health expert and something of a surprise to people who've been watching this process.